The Coming Revolution in Desktop Pick-and-Place Machines

For today's super-small components, hobbyists desperately need a Maker version of an assembly robot -- a 3D printer-type device that makes and assembles circuit boards.

When I started in electronics, the difference between amateur and professional prototyping techniques was pretty small. The primary tools were the same -- wire-wrap, proto boards, soldering irons -- and all the components were presented in nice, big through-hole packages. This is no longer the case. Components keep getting smaller, and many new devices are available only in super-small packages. Without advanced pick-and-place (PnP) machinery, hobbyists have little access to these new micro surface mount components. The only choices are often a very slow and very steady set of tweezers, an expensive service provider, or simply not using that nifty new 2mm x 2mm motor driver.

It's a brutal world for the amateur. By comparison, professionals are well served by companies like Screaming Circuits, which is where I can be found during the workday. With our commercial PnP robots, we can handle as many of the tiny parts as an engineer can throw at us. I'm lucky in that I can occasionally send one of my designs through our factory. All I have to do is make it really small and really complex and call it a demo. But none of that helps the typical hobbyist or prefunding Maker.

What's needed is a Maker version of an assembly robot. We need a 3D printer-type device that makes circuit boards. Adam Carlson recently started a project on just that subject and is blogging about it here on EE Times.

His isn't the only hobby-grade PnP machine out there. Picktor has used a 3D printer to create a PnP head to replace the plastic extruder in the 3D printer. If you already have the right kind of printer, this approach has a lot of merit. Why have multiple devices when one can do the work of two?

The startup BotFactory has launched a Kickstarter project for its Squink assembly robot. Today, the first order of business when building a prototype is to send your design files out to a PCB fab house. Squink eliminates this step by creating a printed circuit board for you.

Squink has a conductive ink cartridge that will print the circuit traces in much the same way a pen plotter would print a drawing. (Today, the robot prints only single-layer circuits, but BotFactory hints at a future when multi-layer boards can be created with alternating layers of conductive and insulating ink.)

In the next step, Squink places drops of conductive glue on the surface mount pads. This replaces the solder paste used in conventional surface mount assembly. Finally, it uses a vacuum head to pick and place the parts. The glue takes a few minutes to cure, but that can be helped along with a bit of low heat. Since the circuit is printed, and no hot reflow oven is involved, Squink can print on many different surfaces, such as paper or glass.

I think all this is very exciting. If you want to help in developing a low-cost desktop PnP machine, keep a watch on Adam's blog series -- he's currently asking for ideas and volunteers. Meanwhile, what do you think of the Squink project?

My first thought when reading the headline for this piece was, "excellent!" My next thought was, "but what a hobbyist really needs is a way to solder those placed components." Surface mount parts can be difficult to place, but even my 66-year-old eyes can do it (with a nice big magnifier). Where I work we only recently switched from all hand placing and soldering SMT parts when the volumes got over a few hundred boards/year. The passives and SOIC parts were no real problem but now too many ICs only come in BGA and other forms not hand-solderable.

But the Squink system promises to solve that, as I learned by reading further. That's quite exciting. I wonder what sort of current-handling capacity that conductive ink and epoxy has, though, and how it behaves over temperature. Such a device should be quite valuable for prototyping by companies of all sizes, as well as hobbyists.

Hi Carlos -- I'm Max -- one of the editors here at EE Times -- can you keep me informed as to any developments with Squink, including when you eventually make it available with multi-layer support (my email is max.maxfield@ubm.com)

Wb2mjg - It is possible for a hobbyist to hand place a lot of components. One of our customers, a while back, told me that he and his engineer buddies used to have contests to see who could hand solder the smallest component.

He was able to hand solder 01005 passive parts. That's pretty amazing. The reason companies like mine and this emerging desktop PnP machines have a place is that it's hard to do that. Not everybody can, and not everyone enjoys it.

It's a bit like auto mechanics. The tools are around such that just about anyone, theoretically, could repair their car. Most don't, though.

Krisi - The contrast: "more time than money" vs. "more money than time" is a big factor in the future of this sort of thing. Today, there are a lot of hobbyists and makers that simply don't have access to machine assembly.

They might be able to carefully do it by hand, but that's pretty limiting. These desk-top pick and place machines will helpe considerably. I work for a place that is very proud of our service and abilities in the pro world. A lot of people simply can't afford to pay for the expertize of a professional. Desktop PnP machines may very well be the answer for those folks.

I like the Squink idea a lot, except for the pic and place idea. Making PC boards with conductive epoxy put down as well is super, but pick and place requires a vision system and additional capabilities not needed in "mere" print heads. I believe the home hobbyist can easily put a chip or SMD in place on conductive epoxy manually using his internal vision system!

Instead of pic and place, how about adding the ability to deposit insulating layers to build up multi-level PCBs??

I'd say that desktop pick and place machines are about where 3D printers were about five years ago. I think the pick and place will come in faster though, since many of the problems were solved with 3D printers.